Congress legislators hailing from the Telangana region appear to be distancing themselves from the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the movement for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
An indication to this effect was given by Congress MPs Forum convenor Ponnam Prabhakar. “We are out of JAC as it has become a pocket borough of TRS. We take strong objection to its unilateral call for social boycott of Telangana leaders who do not resign from their posts. We will not quit but will continue to pursue the statehood cause,” he said.
There has been little response from Congress legislators to JAC’s call for resignation of all the elected representatives hailing from Telangana in protest against the terms of reference of the Justice Srikrishna Committee appointed by the Centre to examine the situation in the state.
The JAC, comprising representatives from Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and a string of pro-Telangana outfits, had set Monday evening as the deadline for submitting the resignations. However, even a day later, barring two legislators, R Damodar Reddy and Ch Muthyam Reddy, other Congress members have ignored the call.
On the other hand, 10 TRS MLAs have put in their papers along with one member each from TDP, BJP and PRP. The resignations of TRS and BJP legislators have also been accepted by Assembly Speaker, N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
TDP legislators said they were ready to submit their resignations but would take the initiative only after Congress legislators put in their papers. In a tactical move, 35 of them sent their resignation letters to JAC instead of sending them to the Speaker even though JAC convenor, M Kodandaram, said such a step would be of no consequence.
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Meanwhile, the Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes on Tuesday with the TDP members from Telangana stalling the proceedings, pressing for a debate on police excesses on Osmania University students. They continued their sit-in at the Speaker’s podium till evening even after the House was adjourned for the day.
The Telangana region accounts for 119 legislators in the 294-member Assembly. The While Congress has 50 legislators, TDP has 39. BJP and PRP have two legislators each.